Don Quixote in focus of the “cold war”
April 25, 2005
This year the Language day has a special coloration: 400 years ago the unsurpassed world literature masterpiece about the adventures of sad character knight and and his faithful henchman Sancho Panza was published for the first time. In Venezuela in this connection the “Operation Dulcinea” (named after the novel female hero) was declared. In cooperation with the Ministry of culture and Ibero-American publishing house «Alfaguara» one million of copies of the book about Don Quixote was published, with some portion of the edition to be donated to hundreds of school and municipal libraries. The same day on April 23 at central squares of all the Venezuelan cities the book jubilee was celebrated by handing over the copy of “Don Quixote” for all comers, first of all for those who have never had extra money.
It is necessary to point out, that 70 thousand copies were printed in English and sent to school children and students of English speaking island states of the Caribbean sea. Another 5 thousand of the “super book” in French the Bolivarian Venezuela sent to the readers of Haiti.
In Mexico and Chile the jubilee of “Don Quixote” was marked by many days reading the book. In Santiago-de-Chile it was the President Ricardo Lagos was the first one to start this unprecedented public reading. In Mexico the Marathon race reading of the book continued day and night – more and more enthusiasts kept on coming to read few pages of their favorite book.
And many other countries of the world celebrated the jubilee date on grand scale: exhibitions, symposiums, theatricals have been arranged.
Unfortunately some papers in Russia could do nothing but respond to the world-wide festival by repeating the propaganda stock phrases of the empire that tries to use the tested arsenal of the cold war to compromise the president Hugo Chavez and his social revolution. The most principal pearl of this war shifted to Russia is the following: Hugo Chavez made the population of Venezuela read “Don Quixote”. He declared, that “Don Quixote” is the book which must be read by all population of the country...
The opponents of Chavez have already called him a “lunatic”. They compare him with Don Quixote, who also used to fight the windmills. The Venezuelan leader is a close friend of Fidel Castro. He advocates establishment of the new world order where developing countries will liberate themselves from inequality, poverty and injustice. The critics of Chavez accuse him of spending huge profits from oil to the ineffective social programs and leading the poverty-stricken country to establishing the dictatorship of Cuban type”.
Of course, this is bashfully published with reference to foreign agencies. American, first of all. It is allegedly the USA who are concerned that Chavez spends oil dollars in “the wrong way”. It could have been kept in American banks, brought profit, used for waging wars and establishing the world order without UNO of any sort and international rules of a game. Washington is not concerned with any Venezuelan pauper – as well as of its own, the number of which is at least 30 million in the USA!
It is interesting, in Washington they are not very much concerned about the Russian oil dollars in raking hands of oligarchs and capitalists with young communist league past. This money is used for yachts, foreign football teams and idyllic middle age castles to comfortably live away from more acute Russian problems.
It is a pity that in Russia there is not a single “lunatic” who could not grudge but a little bit of his unjust profits so that to publish, say, “War and peace” by L. Tolstoy for those Russians who could hardly make both ends meet.
Wish there were more such “mads” like Chavez!